Wednesday, 17 October 2012

A circular enclosure, of a height of three meteres, with a
perimeter that is calculated to be 500 meters, surrounds the toumba (the tumulus),
that is situated in an agricultural area near Amphipolis of Serres, as the head
of the 28th Ephorate of Antiquities, mrs Katerina Peristeri, declared.

The Kastas toumba, as it is called, has been known since 1965, but now for the
first time its excavation was decided, without, however, having secured the
necessary funding, resulting only in the partial uncovering of the verily impressive
enclosure wall. There is a log way to go before the dig proceeds to a greater
depth to verify the existence of burials and to explore and seek elements that
will prove to whom these belong.

In Amphipolis, however, it would seem that they are in a hurry, both the
Ephorate of Antiquities and the local authorities, who decided in advance that
it belongs to well-known persons, Roxane, the wife of Alexander the Great and
their son, Alexander IV.

According to history Roxane did indeed go to Macedonia after the death of
Alexander, where she and her twelve-year-old son were murdered; but whether
they were buried in Amphipolis, were according to one version they had been
exiled, that belongs to the sphere of myth and not science.

“This is an enclosure wall that is one of a kind, as nor
in Vergina nor elsewhere in the Hellenic area exists anything similar”,
declared mrs Peristeri and no one can deny this. But the hurry to identify it
with historical persons, as well as the
fact that this excavation does not have a foreseeable future in these
financially difficult times, can only be characterised unscientific.

A.M. Comment:

The article seems to be
biased against mrs Peristeri. Neither in the declaration published here nor in
her other public statements on the state TV does she mention specific “historical
persons”. All she does is to point out the exceptional nature of the site. What
the unnamed “local authorities” claim the site to be is of no consequence, and
it is bad journalism to amalgamate the two.

In short the unsigned article has the smell of an archaeologist’s
feud, something all too common in Greek archaeology… This should not, however,
subtract from the fact that the Kastas toumba appears to be an extremely
promising site which we hope will one day be properly explored and excavated.